Get ready for some #GirlPower! Celebrity stylist Karla Welch (you know, the woman behind the wardrobes of Justin Bieber, Tracee Ellis Ross, Olivia Wilde and more) has become known for her perfect-fitting x karla t-shirts, and now she’s teamed up with Instagram poet and bestselling author Cleo Wade and Express on a pair of tees inspired by the retailer’s Women Together campaign.
The limited-edition Cleo Wade x karla capsule collection features two super soft Welch-approved crewneck t-shirts, each emblazoned with an empowering saying dreamed up by Wade: “It’s All Good in the Sisterhood” and “Herstory in the Making.”
As Welch explained in an Instagram post, the white tees are a combination of Wade’s “❤️” and her iconic shirt “sleeve.” For the uninitiated, the stylist was in search of the perfect top for Bieber to wear on tour when she decided to go ahead and make her own tunics for him and tees for women.
The result is a French girl-inspired high, tight crewneck with fitted sleeves and a streamlined body that can easily be tucked into high-waisted pants or layered under slip dresses and blazers without any bulk.
She tapped her friend Wade to find the right words for the shirts because, as she said in a statement, “Cleo stands for positivity, knowing and loving yourself and loving your neighbor” and has emerged as “this really strong, engaging voice of a generation in a way that’s incredibly positive and inclusionary.”
For her part, the Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life author, who has some half-a-million followers on Instagram, said she was drawn to the “spirit of sisterhood” surrounding the Express Women Together campaign.
“I wanted to design something that would make me smile. I wanted to harness the strength in joy and lightheartedness,” she shared. “There’s so much hidden bias in language that presents masculinity as superior. Taking back our language — herstory, not history — is part of closing the equality gap.”
The Cleo Wade x karla tees retail for $34.90 each at Express stores and express.com. And because this collab is about doing good in addition to looking good, the retailer is donating $25,000 to the Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York and Women’s Prison Association — two organizations near and dear to Wade’s heart.
